Cessna plane crash lands safely in Victoria

Officials knew about 12:55 p.m. that the pilot, Stanly Heckrodt, of Victoria, was struggling to put down the landing gear at the nose of his 1980 Cessna T210N, said Victoria County Fire Marshal Ron Pray.

At 1:14 p.m., the situation was declared an emergency, and city and county firefighters responded to the scene at 609 Foster Field Drive.

Heckrodt initially left Victoria and was bound for Corpus Christi but came back to the Victoria Regional Airport when he realized the problem, Pray said.

There, Heckrodt circled for about 10 or 15 minutes to burn off fuel before crash landing at the 13 right runway, Pray said.

Heckrodt, whose age was not available, was not injured.

There was no one else in the plane.

"He knew he was going to have to crash land," Pray said. "He did a real good job."

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.

Last year, there were two emergency crash landings at the Victoria Regional Airport.